The Panther/TII/E-Series were developed with the experience gained in Russia. If they were designed to fight in conditions OTHER than Russia then the teams who did that must have been the stupidest people on the Planet.

...which might be considered a grave mistake by any nation which planned on invading Russia...

It is true that German tanks were inferior to the best of the Russian tanks during the early part of the war in the East. But having good tanks is only one of many factors when it comes to battlefield efficiency. Otherwise the casualty ratio would have been in the favor of the Soviets most of the time. In fact, it was in favor of the Germans. The reason why it was in favor of the Germans was that German society, for various reasons, had produced a much larger number of officer academies than any of the other major belligerents. This meant that the quality of the German officer corps did not deteriorate as rapidly as that of the other belligerents. The longer a war lasts, more and more officers get killed, meaning that it becomes necessary to increasingly promote individuals to positions for which they have had little training. During a war, there is not enough time to expand military academies with the view of gaining immediate results that will be of use for the current war, assuming the war lasts, roughly, as long as WWI or WWII.

And the terrain which most German armour was expected to fight in was...?

The PzI,II,III,IV models were developed to fight in Central Europe, you should know that. All models had to be cheap (see Pz.I that deserves not to be called tank) as in 1936 the Panzertruppen started with zero, or better with board dummies. And it was British Intelligence who told the Poles in 1939 that "most" of Hitler`s tanks were dummies. This why you see these legendary filmclips when Polish cavalry attacked German tanks.They were told by their superiors that these Teuton tanks were board dummies.

Was there anything / any event that made official in the eyes of the allies that germany and japan were allies?

This is the most obvious big mistake to ally with the japs who were stupid enough or perhaps it was a plan all along to do pearl harbour and get the U.S. into the war to crush the germans?

I am not a scholar but to me this was a really stupid decision to make an alliance with japan, firstly japan is so far away from germany what was the benefit of such an alliance? Also not to mention it was a stupid invitation to even more enemies.

Was there anything / any event that made official in the eyes of the allies that germany and japan were allies?

Yes of course. There were already newspapers, radio and limited TV available.

Quote:

This is the most obvious big mistake to ally with the japs who were stupid enough or perhaps it was a plan all along to do pearl harbour and get the U.S. into the war to crush the germans

The Anti-Comintern Treaty was upgraded in March 41. Japan entered Axis-Pact. At that time Roosevelt had already given order to the Navy to attack Axis Vessels in the Atlantic without warning. So full scale war was only a matter of time. The calculation of Hitler, now under time pressure, was, that if Japan can keep the US 1-2 years busy he would have the time to destroy "England's last hope to crush the Reich, the Red Army."
See Fuhrerweisung No39 "Barbararossa". It starts with Hitler's obsession:
England (next to the jews always talking point in Hitler's private round, see The Table Talks)

Another big reason (and, here the pun is intended) that Hitler wanted the alliance with Japan was that the Japanese had one of the biggest navies in the world. It was far superior to the German. The German navy wasn't able to even finish its first aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin. If your country lacks a large fleet then the next best thing is to ally oneself with a country that does.

Another big reason (and, here the pun is intended) that Hitler wanted the alliance with Japan was that the Japanese had one of the biggest navies in the world. It was far superior to the German. The German navy wasn't able to even finish its first aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin. If your country lacks a large fleet then the next best thing is to ally oneself with a country that does.

The Japanese Imperial Navy was the Japanese, on the other side of the globe. But certainly Hitler was speculating that the third biggest Navy in the world could keep the US busy for 1-2 years, in which he hoped to take out the Red Army. In that case an Anglo-Allied invasion of Europe would have been almost impossible. That Germany's own new navy was in it's baby shoes when WW2 started, and Britain (without the US) would not have a continental army anymore, he was hoping to get an armistice from the British after a defeat of the Red Army.

The war itself was not winnable for the Germans from the beginning, thus when England made it a world war on Sept.3th,1939. Do no underestimate an English DoW because it is a proven fact of history that her colonies declare war too. Thus Canada, Australia,New Zealand ,South Africa declared war as well, with delay though until Sept.10th.

What I don't understand is how it all plays like a silly game, with signing pacts and declaring to your enemies that you have formed an alliance. Yeah that's real smart, I guess that's why the khazars won because they did everything underhanded and nobody knew about what they did either.

Develope the A bomb, nuke Russia. Then ask GB and France and whoever else if they'd like some. Simple. Position a nuke sub off of Manhattan and see if they want to see Adolf's "Manhattan Project". Bier macht stark! 88.